Anything & Everything New York (PART 2) - [please search thread before posting]

traveller

WaxiesDargle wrote: »

oh dear...I think if you go back I didn't mention 'red line'...this is what I wrote..

"by the way that subway (1, 2 and 3 red) goes straight through all the attractions or a short walk from it"

....which is the colour of the numbers ...some numbers are green...others blue

anyhow I'm sure people got my meaning

Thanks-I did waxy.I was just commenting on the fact that forgetting colours made me remember how to use their system as I was petrified. Can you also tell me what you thought of the beacon, as I'm considering this for next year.Thanks.

jimmyeatdeen

Hi everyone,

I have looked through both parts of this thread and I'm still a bit confused about something...

I'm going to NY in January and am trying to decide how best to pay for things when I'm out there. I only own a debit card (HSBC, not the Nationwide one) and I don't have a credit card. I wouldn't mind just bringing cash with me, but my sister went to NY a while back and said the hotel she stayed in asked her for CREDIT card details (not debit) on arrival in order to let her stay there. Surely that can't be right, as not everyone has a credit card? I didn't have a problem reserving a hotel room with my debit card, and will be paying for the hotel with cash when I leave.

Could someone please let me know if some hotels require credit cards details on arrival? It seems a bit odd to me, but my sister was insistent that it is so.

Thanks!

M4RKM

some hotels will require a swipe for "extras" depends where you really stay.... most of the time I've prepaid my hotel, so I don't have to hand over my card unless I want to, and unless that hotel offers extras like room service, pay movies, telephone calls etc..

Savvy_Sue

Personally, I think it would be worth getting an 'overseas' credit card, just for insurance purposes as it were ... You don't have to use it if you don't need it!

phatbear

Right finally back on UK time so I thought I would chuck a little report of my trip at you all.

We flew virgin from heathrow, service was good as usual but seats were cramped, my own fault for being a cheap skate of course, flight was a tad late leaving the UK however we arrived ahead of shcedule at JFK. Immigration took no more than 20mins, still cant see why the heck i need to fill my security info out for virgin to submit to US authorities and fill out a landing card and get esta clearance all seems a tad bit like overkill.

We stayed at the Novotel Times Square, I can hear Mr Moo gasping from here, which was on 52nd and broadway, hotel was ok good views, close to 2 subways couple of minor gripes, the room had a fridge in it, or a refreshment station as they called it, however it was full of their drinks and candy etc so no room for your own stuff, of course we could have removed the drinks and replaced them with our own but I pictured a back and forth tussle with our cleaners if they replaced the items each day. The bathroom, which was clean and spacious, had no heated mirror or fan in it therefore if you had a shower and wanted to do your hair etc you had to do it in the room. And the final gripe they had an odd layout in the hotel where you entered the hotel on 52nd and then took a lift up 2 flights to the reception then had to walk across reception to get another lift to your room. However in conclusion the rooms was adeuqate and the hotel was reasonable so we would consider staying there again.

I do love my food and on this occasion we ate at:

Virgils, becoming a first night ritual still good food though and really nice attentive waitress, gota love their train wreck fries.
Texas BBQ, noisy as heck and busy busy busy, but food for 4 and a couple of huge cocktails for about $120 you cant go wrong, kids loved the ribs.
Shake shack, theres a long story behind this which i wont go into, but suffice to say I wont be relying on google maps again, when i did finally find it the food was great, apart from the chips which were "ok" milkshakes were amazing.
Wo-Hop, got chatting to a young asian lady just as we were entering china town and she said only "white folk" go there, however given I am white I thought we should try it, heaps of food for 4 and a drink for less than $60 you cant go wrong.
Johns pizzeria, tasty fresh pizza and not overly expensive, however this was the one time where the waiter almost didnt receive a tip, im not down with the the whole "you must tip" culture, and on each visit to a resturant we tipped at least double the tax however on this occasion the chap took our order then sodded off and sat with his colleagues chatting away, a different chap brought us our food, and it was'nt until we had finished our food that he bothered to ask if everything was ok, anyway because I was'nt paying a tip was left despite my reservations not to.

We had tickets to a yankees game on friday and given that this was my first game I was well up for it, and all I can say is who do I claim 3 hours of my life back from? what a boring game, its seemed to be 3 hours of fat blokes wearing pyjamas swinging at balls which they seldom hit, hell I could do that for a lot less money than they do it for. Another oddity was the game had been sold out for months yet the stadium was probably only about 75% full. The most entertaining part of the whole event was the lady sitting in front of me who knew the words to everysong and she insisted on getting up to each one and shaking her money maker to all of em, god bless her.

Done a lot of mooching about, spent some time in battery park and central park on our last day, which was nice to unwind and get some rays, kids didnt seem to agree as they wanted to keep shopping.

Managed to get my good lady a tiffanys bracelet for her birthday so im now well in credit, however on the shopping front I noticed there were'nt as many bargains to be had compared to previous trips, and i dont just mean the because of the exchange rate I mean discounts on goods, hell macys has even dropped its out of towner discount to 10% rather than 11%. Another point, and im not sure if someone on here mentioned it or another forum, but the first shop I went into, champs to get some t shirts, used chip and pin on my debit card which oddly failed despite having more than enough money on my account, however places like macys that rely on signatures accepted my card with no problems.

Flight back was delayed by an hour and a half and got back to the UK an hour late, flight was overbooked and they were looking for volunteers to fly the next day however Mrs Phatbear wouldnt allow me to volunteer her or either of the kids.

All in a good trip despite 2 days of rain and the yankess game, think we'll give the U.S a miss next year and maybe try and get some history into our veins.

greenface

good report phat I think a baseball game old be like watching paint dry too.

WaxiesDargle

traveller wrote: »

Thanks-I did waxy.I was just commenting on the fact that forgetting colours made me remember how to use their system as I was petrified. Can you also tell me what you thought of the beacon, as I'm considering this for next year.Thanks.

Hi traveller...I wrote this on page 113 or 114...I've copied and pasted it below

Ok first of all the Hotel Beacon as I saw it…warts and all.

This hotel is ideally situated on 75th Street away from all of the hustle and bustle and is only about two minutes walk from 72nd Street subway.

The hotel staff are pleasant enough but I found one or two a wee bit abrupt but maybe that is just me. The corridor leading to our rooms smelt a bit musty. Our room was on the 4th floor and we had a one bedroom suite with two double beds with a pull out sofa bed in the living room. My girls stayed in the double beds which they said was very comfortable and their room was a fair size…while I had the short straw and had the pullout…which was pretty uncomfortable as it has a thin mattress with springs (but I expected that from a pullout bed) The living room had a kitchenette with cooker, microwave, toaster, kettle and fridge/feezer with all the cutlery.
There was a couple of other issues…it was 93 degrees daytime and 70 odd at night…and the air conditioning was like someone hoovering up!...so I had to turn that off…then there was the fridge/freezer…with a really loud hum interchanging with a watery gurlging (like when you get water from a water cooler and the air makes it gurgle) so I had to pull the fridge away from the wall so I could get to the socket to take the plug out!...oh and on one occasion I could hear the people next door chatting away loudly when I was in bed…but that wasn’t too bad and didn't last long. There was no noise whatsoever from outside.

The room was cleaned immaculately every day, with a newspaper put outside the door. There were two widescreen tellies in each room and ample wardrobe spaces. There was also a little safe to put valuables. The bathroom was ok but got very steamy after a shower as there was no extractor fan.

My girls rated this hotel very highly...so would I if I had their room!!

There was an excellent Fairway supermarket opposite with an unbelievable choice of stuff….especially fruit and veg which was stacked high! and a diner right next door.
Just a short walk from the hotel were loads of restaurants/diners...most with dining facilities outside.

All in all, despite making it sound not that good… I would choose this hotel again.

mynameisnotfred

Nice report Phatbear! Bit worried about the baseball report though - already booked seats for a Yankees game... Think I would have regretted it if I didn't go to a game though as I really got the bug for it last time I was in NY.

Less than 2 weeks til I fly off there now!

phatbear

Dont get me wrong its worth going for the experience but dont expect to have 3 hours of excitement, personally if the timing had been better I would much rather have seen an ice hockey or basketball game, I just thought it quite funny that these lumps in their pj's were getting paid so much money to swing a baseball bat, and probably 99% of the times, miss the ball, as I put it to my good lady its like watching dads play rounders at a kids sports day, and this is the yankees gawd only knows what a lesser team would be like.

M4RKM

phatbear wrote: »

Another point, and im not sure if someone on here mentioned it or another forum, but the first shop I went into, champs to get some t shirts, used chip and pin on my debit card which oddly failed despite having more than enough money on my account

were you asked if it was debit or credit?

if you said debit, it would fail, as it's trying to do basically an ATM transaction which our system doesn't, but if you say credit, they wouldn't ask for a pin (I think most places i've seen it in NYC is a swipe and pin, rather than a chip and pin system), and you would just sign..

you'll know that for next time...